References like this--like "America First"--seem to exist in a kind of cultural half-memory. Most people do not explicitly remember the slogan. Nor do they explicitly endorse the ideology it represented. But they like the slogan. There's a familiarity to it.
And inevitably, it's attached to an ideology pretty similar to the one it was attached to before. This is really interesting. It suggests that in some way it has been unconsciously remembered. I have nothing like a theory of this, an idea how this mechanism works.
And whatever kind of theory I came up with wouldn't be the falsifiable kind. But look what's in front of us: People do seem to be capable of repressing historic memories just as they're capable of repressing personal ones.
And as with personal ones, they tend to be memories that cause guilt and give rise to forbidden yearnings.
I think most people who've been excited by the slogan "America First"--including Donald Trump--would be unable consciously to say why that slogan appealed to them.
I think most people who've been excited by the slogan "America First"--including Donald Trump--would be unable consciously to say why that slogan appealed to them.
But I also think *in some way* everyone knows.
It's easy to say, "My God, they're all so ignorant.""They know nothing of history!" That's at least reassuring. But I don't think it's how it works.
It's easy to say, "My God, they're all so ignorant.""They know nothing of history!" That's at least reassuring. But I don't think it's how it works.
I suspect history leaves some kind of epigenetic resin on our collective cultural unconscious. I know .... this sounds like phlogiston. But we have to account for this phenomenon, because we're seeing it.
How can you grow up in America without ever having heard of the America First Committee--without ever hearing a reference to it on television, in conversation? You can't. People knew what it was. They didn't know the details, maybe. But they knew enough to sense it wasn't good.
That made it attractive and familiar.
(Americans don't however know what "Je suis partout" was, not even at a half-conscious level, although probably many would sense that the slogan--"I am everywhere"--has an unpleasant resonance.
(Americans don't however know what "Je suis partout" was, not even at a half-conscious level, although probably many would sense that the slogan--"I am everywhere"--has an unpleasant resonance.
This was Je suis partout. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Je_suis_p…
No one in his right mind wants to remember what that was really about. But people who aren't in their right minds will always be drawn to it.
No one in his right mind wants to remember what that was really about. But people who aren't in their right minds will always be drawn to it.
